Go out there and change the world.
- Tim Draper, Draper Fisher Jurvetson
"Whatever the world looks
like now, it will change," said Tim
Draper, founder and managing director of Draper Fisher Jurvetson (DFJ),
during the keynote session at the March 1 Entrepreneurship in the Global Marketplace seminar, organized by the Stanford Program on
Regions of Innovation and Entrepreneurship (SPRIE) with sponsorship from
Alibaba.com, the first in a series of seminars by the Schwarzenegger Emerging
Entrepreneur Initiative. Concluding his remarks, Draper urged the overflow
audience: "Go out there and change the world."
Draper and the nine other participants shared different perspectives on
entrepreneurship, but a key message underlying all of the presentations was
that the world is a dynamic, rapidly changing place where entrepreneurs can
succeed by anticipating and responding to global trends. In doing so, many
suggested, it is also possible to change the world—for the better. The
participants all concurred that China is one of the key places in the world—now
and in the future—to do business, representing a challenging but a vast
frontier of opportunity.
Global demographic trends are a major factor that venture capitalists consider
when making investments. Addressing the worldwide aging phenomenon, which is
particularly acute in Asia-Pacific countries such as Japan and China, Draper
explained how DFJ has invested in a company that manufactures videogame-like
devices designed to improve cognition, noting the growing market for such
devices that help keep cognitive health apace with a longer life span. Hans Tung, a partner with the
Shanghai-based venture capital firm Qiming Ventures, described how his firm is
tracking the large segment of China's population living in small cities away
from commercial hubs. These members of the populace, who prefer to shop online
where they can find a wider selection of goods than in their local shopping
malls, are quickly becoming a driving force in China's e-commerce market.
It is China's e-commerce and other Internet firms—fueled by the explosion of
Internet users—that carry increasingly significant weight in China's domestic
and the global economy. Duncan Clark,
a visiting scholar at SPRIE, presented related findings from SPRIE's China 2.0: The Rise of a Digital Superpower research initiative, which is led by Marguerite
Gong Hancock, associate director of SPRIE. China 2.0, explores the
conditions generating such rapid growth of the Internet, and investigates
questions surrounding the possible global implications of it. Clark noted that
as China's three largest Internet firms—search engine Baidu, instant-messaging
service Tencent, and e-commerce portal Taobao—expand, domestic competition will
not only intensify, but move further into the global economic arena. The "big
three" firms are already ranked among the top 20 Internet sites in the world
based on site traffic. According to Clark, the key question in the future for
U.S. companies will be how to partner with Chinese companies in order to insure
their own growth.
Riding the global wave of innovation and entrepreneurship, Jonathan Ross Shriftman, co-founder of Solé Bicycle Company, and Ryder Fyrwald, vice president of global
operations at the Kairos Society, have discovered opportunities to effect
positive change despite a global climate of intense economic competition.
Shriftman, a recent University of Southern California (USC) graduate, described
the lessons that he has learned through his company's quest to manufacture
low-cost, quality fixed-gear bicycles that provide a stylish, alternate form of
transportation. Despite funding and language challenges, Shriftman and his
partner succeeded in connecting with a manufacturer in China through
Alibaba.com, and have sold nearly 800 bicycles to date. Fyrwald, who is still
an undergraduate at USC's Marshall School of Business, explained the philosophy
behind the Kairos Society, an international network of student entrepreneurs
who seek to solve world issues through entrepreneurship and innovation. He
cited the example of WaterWalla, a company that has developed, among other
technologies, a low-cost water purification device for use by urban slum
dwellers.
From the perspective of seasoned venture capitalists Draper and Tung and
emerging entrepreneurs Shriftman and Fyrwald, the message at Entrepreneurship in the Global Marketplace was clear: the way to succeed in a rapidly changing world is to react
promptly—and creatively—to global trends. And, as Shriftman suggested, it is
possible to "do well by doing good," and change the world in a positive way.